Taiwan’s Ma visits Xi, whose intentions he trusts

Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou met with Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in Beijing on Wednesday, their first meeting since Singapore in November 2015.

The latest Xi-Ma meeting came ahead of a summit between United States President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington on Wednesday US time.

During the meeting, Ma said the Chinese nation could not bear for a war to break out in the Taiwan Strait. He said he believes that leaders on both sides have the wisdom to maintain a peaceful and stable environment in the region for economic development.

Xi said there is nothing that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait cannot discuss, and that there is also no power that can separate them.

“People on both sides of the Taiwan Strait long for peace in their homes and harmonious coexistence with their families,” Xi said. “To this end, we must promote the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.”

“As long as the country is not divided and we recognize that both sides of the Taiwan Strait are Chinese and one family, we can sit down and communicate with each other,” he said.

He added that the communication in the cross-Strait relations must be based on the principle of the “1992 Consensus.”

The 1992 Consensus was achieved in a meeting between the semi-official representatives of the CCP-led People’s Republic of China (PRC) of mainland China and Kuomintang (KMT)-led Republic of China (ROC) of Taiwan.

The CCP said the 1992 Consensus means that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to “one China,” which is solely represented by the PRC. The KMT understanding of the consensus is “one China, different interpretations,” meaning that China can be interpreted